CLARK - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Acting Director of Amnesty International USA 's Program to Abolish

Ajamu Baraka, acting director of Amnesty International USA's Program to Abolish the Death Penalty, said Oklahoma had no business executing Allen. "Any state that exercises this ultimate punishment against a person who is mentally impaired is acting not only immorally, but also irrationally and illegally," Baraka said. Before Thursday, 44 women had been executed in the United States since 1900. The last execution of a black woman came in 1954, when Ohio electrocuted Betty Jean Butler. The most recent woman to die was Christina Marie Riggs, 28, executed in Arkansas last May for smothering her two young children.

Allen Jones, a firearms examiner employed by the Dallas County Forensic Science Laboratory, testified that he examined the recovered bullets, after which he formed the opinion that they were fired from a .38 calibre type weapon, which was the calibre of the Collector's item pistol. Jones, however, was unable to positively testify that in his opinion the bullets that were fired came from the Collector's item pistol that had been previously recovered from the appellant's residence. See ante. Jackie Collins, a niece of Beets who was also an employee of J.C. Penney Life Insurance Company, testified to Beets' personally cancelling an insurance policy in the amount of $10,000 on May 19, 1983. The application, which had apparently been sent with a monthly J.C. Penney bill to either Beets or appellant or to both of them, had been filled out without Beets' knowledge. What attracted Collins' attention to the application was the fact that the address on the application was not Beets' but was that of another of appellant's daughters. Appellant was the named beneficiary on the application. When appellant testified, she did not deny that she had filled out the application, signed Beets' name to the application, and returned it with the monthly payment.

Alphonse Harrison, a friend of Adrian's, had seen him earlier in the day, and the two made plans to get together that night. Harrison phoned the apartment between 7:00 and 7:15 p.m.. Frances answered the telephone. When he asked to speak with Adrian, Frances put Harrison on hold and left him there. Alphonse Harrison, a friend of Adrian Newton, had seen him earlier in the day on April 7, 1987, and the two made plans to get together that night. Harrison testified that he called Adrian between 7:00 and 7:15 that evening, and appellant answered the telephone. Harrison never got to talk to Adrian because appellant put him on hold and left him holding for possibly 45 minutes. Harrison hung up but continued to call back and finally got an answer around 9:00 p.m., when appellant's cousin answered the telephone and told him that Adrian had been shot.

Job Titles:

• County Chief Deputy since Januay 1, 2015.

Job Titles:

• County Deputy since 2021

Bettie Lou Beets, a 62-years-old great grandmother, was executed by the State of Texas on February 24, 2000 after being abused, physically, mentally and emotionally by various men in her life since early childhood. Despite of all the reports she gave the police, which clearly demonstrated the terrorizing conditions she was living under, nobody ever cared to handle the situation before it was too late. Beets became the 4th woman to be killed by the state in the United States since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 and the 1st. by the State of Texas since the 1998 execution of Karla Faye Tucker

Betty Lou Beets admitted that she previously had been convicted of public lewdness, which apparently occurred when she was in Charlie's Angels Bar, a Dallas bar, where she was then employed but was not working when the incident occurred. Beets testified that she "auditioned" that night, without specifying what type of audition it was for: "Well, it's a topless place but I wasn't topless." Beets also admitted on cross-examination that she had been convicted of another misdemeanor offense that resulted when she shot another former husband, Bill Lane, in the side of the stomach. Betty Lou Beets, a cashier and waitress, was convicted of the August 1983 shooting death of her fifth husband at the couple's home near Gun Barrel City in East Texas in what authorities said was a scheme to collect over $100,000 in insurance benefits and a $1200 per month pension. His body was found buried under a wishing well in their front yard. Jimmy Don Beets was a Dallas firefighter who disappeared on Aug. 6, 1983. His fishing boat was found drifting on Lake Athens. She is called a Black Widow because she was also charged but never tried for the 1981 murder of a previous husband, Doyle Wayne Barker, who was found buried behind a tool shed on the same day Jimmy Don's body was found. Beets had also shot and wounded her second husband. Betty Lou Beets, a great-grandmother convicted of murder in the death of her fifth husband, was executed by lethal injection tonight. (ABCNEWS.com) Despite pleas by battered women's groups and death-penalty opponents, great-grandmother and convicted murderer Betty Lou Beets has been executed in Texas. The 62-year-old so-called Black Widow, convicted of killing her fifth husband, lost her final hope at a reprieve yesterday when both the U.S. Supreme Court and Texas Gov. George W. Bush declined to stop the execution. Beets died at 6:18 p.m. local time at the death house in Huntsville, Texas, 10 minutes after lethal drugs began coursing through her body. As she lay on the gurney in the death chamber, Beets declined an invitation to make a final statement, prison officials said. As she waited for word of a reprieve, Beets wrote letters, read the Bible, and visited with the chaplain in the holding cell near the death chamber, according to a prison spokesman. Beets is only the second woman to be executed in Texas since the Civil War and the fourth in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Shortly before the execution, Bush released a statement explaining his decision not to step in: "After careful review of the evidence of the case, I concur with the jury that Betty Lou Beets is guilty of this murder. I'm confident that the courts, both state and federal, have thoroughly reviewed all the issues raised by the defendant." Bush could have offered a one-time 30-day reprieve. Both the Supreme Court and a federal appeals court had rejected Beets' plea for a reprieve earlier today.

Job Titles:

• Veteran Montgomery Journalist

Veteran Montgomery journalist Bob Ingram was a newly hired Advertiser reporter when Dennison, a nurse, was put to death in 1953 for placing arsenic in an orange drink she gave to her young niece because she wanted to collect on a $500 insurance policy. "That was such a horrendous crime, and it was so close to home - up in Wetumpka - so there was great interest in it," said Ingram, who witnessed Dennison's execution. "There was more interest because of the novelty that she was a woman. But no one was crying out that the state shouldn't execute her because she was a woman."

Job Titles:

• Director, Victim Advocate

Carol Thomas said her daughter confided in her about the depression, but minimized its effect. "She's always been that way. If I pushed her hard she might get mad and tell me what was going on," Thomas said. But generally Riggs kept her feelings to herself, her mother said. In the spring of 1994, Riggs became pregnant again, and in December, Shelby Alexis Riggs was born. Her family called the child Sissie. "We were so happy. she was so beautiful. I didn't think things could get any better. (Jon) cried. I cried. He was full of so much love for her. The way he looked at her," Riggs wrote in the journal. When a terrorist bomb ripped apart Oklahoma City's Murray Federal Building in April 1995, Riggs said the hospital assigned her to work at a triage station a short distance from the blast site. Defense attorneys indicated during her trial that she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result. But prosecutors contended the hospital had no record that she worked in the blast zone. In the summer of 1995, the couple decided to move to Sherwood where her mother was then living. The couple hoped the grandmother could help with day care. Riggs got a job at Baptist Hospital where her mother is employed as as a food service worker. Both children had health problems. Shelby had a series of serious ear infections, and Justin's attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity made him more than a handful, Thomas said. Eventually, the Riggs' marriage crumbled. Christina divorced Jon Riggs and moved back to Oklahoma City after the father punched Justin in the stomach so hard that the boy required medical attention, according to court documents. Justin was crushed. "Justin would say, 'My Daddy hurt me, and then he went away,' " Thomas recalled. From then on, Riggs' difficult financial circumstances got worse. Child support payments from Riggs came irregularly, court documents say. And while Riggs worked long hours at a new job at the Arkansas Heart Hospital and at a temporary nursing agency, her child care bills mounted. "The more you work, the more you need day care," she recalled during the prison interview. "Then you feel bad about having them in day care." Riggs remembered dropping off her daughter Shelby at day care for the first time. The child cried as her mother walked to the car. "She was beating on the glass, yelling, 'Mama! Mama!' " Riggs recalled. Riggs wrote hot checks. Her car registration and insurance expired. She realized she was going under, Riggs said. "I started out in a boat with a small hole. But the hole kept getting bigger, and no matter how hard you bail, you keep sinking," she said. "I was tired and I gave up. Suicide seemed like the only thing." Carol Thomas said she sensed something was wrong and asked her daughter what was wrong. "She'd just say she was tired and working too many hours," Thomas remembered. Because Riggs' appeal is still pending, the condemned woman's lawyer, John Wesley Hall of Little Rock, allowed an interview only on the condition that she not be asked about her crime. But court papers and trial testimony offer a chilling account of the killings. On November 4, 1997, Riggs gathered drugs she would need. She obtained the anti-depressant Elavil from her pharmacist, the painkiller morphine and the toxic potassium chloride from the hospital where she worked. The heart-stopping potassium chloride is the same drug used in the lethal cocktail injected into condemned inmates in the death house. Riggs gave the children a small amount of Elavil to put them to sleep. Then she placed each of the children in their beds. About 10 p.m., she injected Justin with undiluted potassium chloride. But unless it is diluted, the drug causes burning and pain. Justin woke and cried out in terror. Crying herself now, she injected her son with morphine. It had no effect, and he continued to wail. She then smothered the boy with a pillow. Next, she moved to Shelby's bed. Riggs decided to forego the potassium chloride injection because of the pain it had caused Justin. She suffocated her daughter with a pillow. Riggs then placed the children side-by-side on her bed and covered them with a blanket. She wrote suicide notes to her mother and her ex-husband Jon Riggs. She took 28 Elavil tablets, normally a lethal dose, and injected herself with enough undiluted potassium chloride to kill five people. The Elavil took effect, and she fell unconscious to the floor. It was all over by about 10:30 p.m. The undiluted potassium chloride burned a hole in her arm as big as a silver dollar as she lay in a stupor. After Riggs failed to show up for work the next day, Thomas telephoned her daughter's home but got no response. So she drove to her daughter's apartment and let herself in. She found the children dead, and thought Christina Riggs was dead too. "All I could do was turn around and around and scream and holler, 'No. No. No.' " Thomas said. "There's no way to describe how I felt." Thomas punched 911 into her cell phone. "My daughter and her babies are dead!" she cried. Paramedics and police found Riggs barely alive and took her to the Baptist Memorial Medical Center emergency room in North Little Rock. Doctors stabilized Riggs, and later moved her to intensive care where police, who had found the syringes and the suicide notes, kept her under guard. At her June 1998 trial, Riggs contended she was not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, but the Pulaski County jury convicted her. During the penalty phase, Riggs would not allow Hall to put on a defense, saying she wanted a death sentence. The jury obliged. Prosecutor Jegley said he doesn't buy Riggs' prayer for death. "One of the things that was clear to the jury was that she was extremely self-centered and manipulative. Saying she wanted to die may have been one of the manipulative machinations that she had grown comfortable with throughout her life," Jegley said.

Christina Marie Riggs is unique among the women on these pages in that she insisted on her execution, which took place on the 3rd of May 2000. She was the first woman to be executed in Arkansas, since the state took over responsibility for executions in 1913 and only the fifth nation-wide since 1977. She confessed to the killing of her two children, Justin Thomas aged 5 and Shelby Alexis, 2 in November 1997 and asked the jury for the death sentence at the sentencing phase of her trial, telling them "I want to die. I want to be with my babies. I want you to give me the death penalty."

Job Titles:

• State Farm Insurance Agent

Claudia Chapman was working for a State Farm Insurance agent when she met appellant in September 1986. Appellant came in for automobile insurance, and Chapman talked to her about purchasing life insurance. On March 18, 1987, appellant purchased a fifty thousand dollar life insurance policy on herself, another on her husband, Adrian, and a third on her daughter, Farrah. According to the insurance applications, appellant was the primary beneficiary on the latter two policies, which became effective immediately. Both appellant and her mother had made claims on the policies as of the time of the trial of this cause. A ballistics expert established that the pistol recovered by Officer Talton was the murder weapon. A forensics expert for the State established that nitrites were present on appellant's skirt. In the expert's opinion, the nitrites came from gunpowder residue, and were consistent with someone shooting a pistol in the lower front area of the skirt. He testified that another possible source of nitrites would be fertilizer. A forensic expert for appellant confirmed that nitrites could come from fertilizer. Additional facts necessary to the issues will be presented in the sections that follow.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board

Wanda Jean Allen, 41, was executed by Oklahoma on Thursday, January 11, at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Allen, who was killed by lethal injection, was pronounced dead at 9:15pm. Allen had been sentenced to death for the 1988 shooting death of her girlfriend, Gloria Jean Leathers, 29. Allen was the first woman to be executed by the state since 1903. The only other documented of a woman here, which occurred before statehood, was of Dora Wright. Like Allen, Wright was black. Allen was the first black woman to be executed in the US since 1954. She was the sixth woman to be executed in this country since executions resumed in 1977. While lying on the execution gurney, Allen said "Father forgive them. They know not what they do." Governor Frank Keating denied a request earlier in the day for a 30-day stay of execution for Allen. Allen's attorney, Steve Presson, had argued that Allen did not receive a fair clemency hearing, because the state misled the board with regard to Allen's education. This was an issue because of Allen's mental retardation. Before making his decision, Keating met with the Rev Jesse Jackson and Oklahoma Attorney Drew Edmondson. Jackson has been in the state twice in the past two weeks in support of a moratorium on executions. On Wednesday night, Jackson -- along with two or three dozen others -- was arrested for trespassing at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in Oklahoma City. As part of Jackson's protest, he spent the night in jail. On December 2, 1988, Gloria J. Leathers, 29, was shot in front of The Village Police Department in Oklahoma City. The shooting suspect was identified as Wanda Jean Allen, 28. Fifteen minutes before the shooting, the two women, who lived at the same address, were involved in a dispute at a grocery store. A city officer escorted the two women to their house and stood by while the victim collected her belongings. Leathers and her mother were on their way to file a complaint against Allen. When Leathers exited the car, the Allen fired one shot, wounding Leathers in the abdomen. Leathers' mother witnessed the shooting. Two police officers and a dispatcher heard the shot fired, but none of the police department employees witnessed the shooting. The police recovered a.38-caliber handgun they believe was used in the shooting in an area near the the women's home. Allen was charged with shooting with intent to kill. In 1982 she had been sentenced to four years in prison on a manslaughter conviction. She was released in 1984 for that conviction. Allen and Leathers had met in prison. Allen was arrested in Duncan on December 6, 1988. Two hours after Allen's arrest, Gloria J. Leathers died. Before she died, she was able to tell police that Allen was the person who shot her. On December 7, 1988, Allen was charged with first-degree murder. Allen and Leathers had met while in prison together in 1982. On April 19, 1989, jurors rejected Allen's claim of self-defense and found her guilty of first degree murder. After learning that Allen also killed a friend in 1981, jurors took only two hours to decide that Allen should be sentenced to death. Allen's first appeal requesting rehearing was denied on February 15, 1994. An opinion affirming denial of post-conviction relief was issued on December 27, 1995. Claimant's appeal with the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit was denied on January 11, 2000. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board held a clemency hearing for Wanda Jean Allen on December 15, at the Lexington Assessment and Reception Center. There were approximately 181 people (the fire marshall's occupancy limit) allowed into the hearing. Prison officials turned away dozens of others and ordered them to leave the premises. The board voted 3-1 against recommending clemency to Governor Keating. Chairperson Susan Bussey was the sole vote in favor of clemency. Of the five current members of the board, Bussey is the only member to have ever voted in favor of clemency. The Rev Robin Meyers, minister of the Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City, begged the board to spare Allen's life. He asked the board "What do you think Jesus would do?" During the hearing it was pointed out by Meyers that Allen had been found to have an IQ of 69 at the age of 15. This is considered as mental retardation. Allen's trial attorney, Robert Carpenter, was paid only $800 to represent her. [Editor's Note: It typically takes 500-1000 hours to prepare for a capital murder case. For her attorney to properly represent her, he would have been working for between $0.80 and $1.60 per hour.] Carpenter had agreed to represent Allen before the prosecution announced they would seek the death penalty. Having never represented a client in a capital case, Carpenter asked to be removed from the case and have competent counsel appointed. The prosecutors argued that he should not be allowed to withdraw, and the court agreed. Carpenter never had any psychological tests performed on Allen, so the evidence of her mental retardation was never brought up at trial. Board member Currie Ballard, one of Governor Keating's three appointees, scolded Rev Meyers for suggesting the board would willingly seek to execute a mentally retarded person. However, he then went on to vote that Allen should be executed. When Allen spoke during the hearing, she asked Leathers' family for forgiveness. She also begged the board to "please let me live."

Job Titles:

• Boss

Job Titles:

• Director, Adult Protective Services

Denny Burris, a chaplain with the City of Dallas Fire Department, testified that he visited with appellant several times after Beets was reported missing. Burris testified that appellant made inquiry of him whether she was covered by any insurance policies that Beets might have had with the City of Dallas, as well as inquiring whether she would be entitled to receive any pension benefits that Beets might have accumulated. Appellant did not profess to Burris that she had any specific knowledge of either insurance coverage on Beets' life or any pension benefits Beets might have accumulated. Burris told her that he did not know but would check into the matter and report back to her. Burris did check and learned that Beets's life was insured with the total amount of insurance being approximately $110,000. He also learned that appellant would be entitled to receive approximately $1,200 each month from Beets' pension benefits. Burris advised appellant of his findings, and also told her that according to the City Attorney of Dallas that because Beets' body had not been recovered there would be a seven year waiting period before any payment of insurance proceeds could occur. Evidence was adduced during the trial which established that approximately two years later, the appellant, through an attorney, applied for and received letters testamentary. At the same time, appellant, through the attorney, applied to have Beets legally declared dead.

Dr. Charles S. Petty, the Chief Medical Examiner and Director of the Dallas County Forensic Science Laboratory, testified to the "post-mortem autopsy" that he performed on the skeletal remains that had been sent to the laboratory. Petty testified that he identified the bones as those of Beets and Barker's bodies. Petty testified that the cause of death of Beets was "the gunshot wound defect in the skull and locating of not one but two bullets, one in the region of the skull and the other in the region of the bones of the trunk. In my opinion, death was due to one, if not two, gunshot wounds ... One in the head and one in the trunk somewhere." Two bullets were recovered from the skeletal remains of Beets' body; one from the skull area of the body and one from the trunk area of the body. Dr. Randall L. Callison, who had been Beets' dentist during his lifetime, testified that he made a comparison of Beets' skeletal remains with x-rays that he had and in his opinion "the bodily remains that were presented to me from the Dallas County Medical Examiners were the remains of Jimmy Don Beets."Petty also testified that the bullets found in Beets' skeletal remains could have been fired from the same weapon, but he was unable to positively testify that they were fired from the Collector's item pistol. Three bullets were recovered from the skeletal remains of Barker's body. Petty testified that the cause of Barker's death was "gunshot wounds."

Dr. Robin Meyers argued a petition for clemency for Wanda Jean Allen on Friday, Dec.15, 2000, at 1 p.m. at the Lexington Penitentiary in Lexington, Okla. The following is the sermon Meyers delivered to his congregation on Dec.10, 2000. When I say from this pulpit, as I often have, that the only thing anyone knows for certain, is that not a single one of us knows anything for certain, I am speaking from experience-and that's what makes for real preaching. If the maxim in writing is to "write what you know," then it should be true of preaching as well-it ought to be about the world as it really is, not just about the world as we hope it might be someday. Months ago, the phone rang, and the voice on the other end of the line extended an invitation to me that has changed my life in ways I would never have expected, and put me at the center of something bigger than all of us put together. The voice belonged to Steve Presson, whose Norman, Okla., law firm, Jackson and Presson, handles many of Oklahoma's death row cases. He is, I was soon to learn, a regular listener to the weekly Mayflower Congregational UCC radio program-and as a result of listening to those sermons on the radio, had decided to approach the clemency process for a pending execution in a completely new way. We decided to meet at my favorite, funky little coffee house, The Red Cup, and when we pulled up our chairs, stirred in our steaming cups of Java, and started talking, I quickly realized I was about to take the first step down the road less traveled-and as Robert Frost said in that magnificent poem, it really does make all the difference-because once the first step is taken, there is no turning back.

Earle Dennison of Wetumpka also poisoned a relative - her 2-year-old niece - and died in the electric chair at Kilby on Sept. 4, 1953. Dennison was the first white woman executed by the state. On Jan. 24, 1930, Silena Gilmore of Jefferson County became the first woman to be executed in Alabama. Gilmore was convicted of murder, but details of the crime were unavailable Wednesday.

Frances Elaine Newton, 40, was executed by lethal injection on 14 September 2005 in Huntsville, Texas for killing her husband and children for insurance money. On 18 March 1987, Newton, then 21, took out $50,000 life insurance policies on her 23-year-old husband, Adrian, and her 21-month old daughter, Farrah. A policy already existed for her 7-year-old son, Alton. At the time, the Newtons were having marital problems. Although they lived together, they were both dating other people. Adrian's brother, Sterling Newton, was also living in their apartment. On 7 April 1987, between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m., Sterling Newton came home. Frances asked him to leave for a while, to give her some time to talk with Adrian alone about their marital problems. Sterling left about an hour to an hour and a half later. At about 6:45 p.m., Ramona Bell - Adrian's girlfriend - phoned Adrian. Bell and Adrian spoke for about fifteen minutes. Adrian told Bell that he was tired and was going to go to sleep, but not until Frances left, because he did not trust her. The state of Texas is scheduled to execute Frances Newton on Sept. 14th for the April 1987 murders of her husband, Adrian Newton and children Alton and Farah Newton in Harris County. If executed, Newton would be the first African-American woman Texas has put to death since the state resumed executions in 1982. Frances Newton, 40, is scheduled to die today for the fatal shootings 18 years ago of Alton; her 21-month-old daughter, Farrah; and her husband, Adrian, 23. Newton would be the 13th prisoner executed this year in Texas but only the third woman -- and the first black woman -- since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982. Newton, who denies involvement in the killings, spent Tuesday visiting with relatives at the Mountain View prison outside Gatesville where the state's 11 condemned women are held. Gatesville is about 140 miles northwest of Huntsville, where she will be taken if the execution proceeds. Her attorneys awaited word from the Supreme Court, where they filed an appeal Monday after Texas courts, lower federal courts and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected their arguments that Newton is not guilty. Her attorneys also asserted that evidence used at her trial was improperly destroyed, that the gun linked to the slayings was not the only weapon recovered by police, and that she has not been a problem inmate, disputing trial evidence that she would be a continuing danger and deserved to die. They also asked Gov. Rick Perry to invoke his authority to issue a one-time 30-day reprieve. "It's distressing because there are so many questions in this case," Newton told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "And you'd hope, I hope, our court system would want to know the answers, other than just saying: 'Oh, we believe we're right in this.' " Newton and a cousin found the three bodies on the evening of April 7, 1987. Her husband had been shot in the head, the two children in the chest. Newton acknowledges hiding a .25-caliber handgun in Alton's knapsack at an abandoned house. Ballistics tests showed that it was the gun used in the slayings, but her attorneys argued that it wasn't the same weapon Newton left there, that police actually recovered a second or third weapon, and the guns were switched. Newton said she found the gun in a drawer at home and hid it to keep her husband from getting into trouble. Adrian Newton had a drug history, and the couple was having marital problems. Both had been engaged in extramarital affairs. Newton's cousin told police about the bag, which she saw Newton conceal. Officers didn't record the serial number or any distinguishing features and when shown the weapon at Newton's trial said only that it "appeared similar," according to David Dow, one of Newton's appeals lawyers. "When the state says Newton can be connected to a gun that has a particular serial number, that's just a flat-out lie," Dow said. Prosecutors have termed the argument a smoke screen. "The fact is, the gun that was the murder weapon was the gun she hid," said Roe Wilson, an assistant district attorney in Harris County. "It was bagged by police and tagged into evidence. There is a chain of custody. It was the only gun recovered." In December, the parole board recommended a reprieve for Newton so new ballistics tests could be conducted on the gun, and Perry agreed about two hours before Newton could have been put to death. In March, new tests confirmed the earlier findings, and Harris County officials rescheduled her execution. The circumstantial case also included evidence that the blue dress Newton was wearing carried possible gunpowder residue. She and her lawyers said the trace of nitrites came from fertilizer rubbed on her dress by her daughter, who stayed during the day with relatives who had a garden. Defense lawyers were unable to conduct additional tests on the dress because it was contaminated when it was stored unprotected with other evidence and because the initial testing destroyed that part of the fabric.

Job Titles:

• Defense Expert

George Sibley, also on death row, had been at Holman Prison but was transferred to another facility prior to the execution, Corbett said. No execution date has been set for him, authorities said. Lyon-Sibley had refused all offers of legal help or the chance to file more appeals to escape the death house. During her trial, she had fired her lawyers and represented herself. Lyon-Sibley, in her death row writings over the years, accused the judicial system of being corrupt. She also did not recognize the authority of Alabama, saying it never became a state again after the Civil War.

Gov. Frank Keating refused Allen's late request for a 30-day stay, and last-minute rejections by appeals courts cleared the way for the death sentence. "This is not easy because I'm dealing with a fellow human being," said Keating, an ardent death penalty supporter. "This is not easy because I'm dealing with a fellow Oklahoman." Outside the prison gates, death penalty supporters and opponents gathered in clusters, talking in low voices and shivering in the cold. Ann Scott, whose daughter Elaine Marie Scott was killed in 1991, said she resented Jackson coming to Oklahoma to try to stop the execution. "I highly resent his being here and teaching Oklahomans civil disobedience," she said. "I think the system works."

Job Titles:

• Governor, State of Arkansas

Gov. Mike Huckabee on Thursday set May 2 for the execution of Christina Marie Riggs, who was sentenced to die by lethal injection for killing her 2 children. Riggs was convicted in Pulaski County Circuit Court for the Nov. 5, 1997, deaths of Justin, 5, who was injected with potassium chloride and morphine, then smothered, and Shelby Alexis, 2, who was smothered. Prosecutors said Riggs, who was living at Sherwood at the time, decided that the children had become an inconvenience to her. They said she left the children by themselves while she competed in karaoke contests and plotted their deaths for 2 or 3 weeks. Last week, the state Supreme Court affirmed a Pulaski County Circuit Court ruling that granted Riggs' request to stop her appeals and found that she was competent to do so. Prison officials say records going back to 1913 indicate that no woman has been executed by the state. Riggs is the only woman on Arkansas' death row. Huckabee said that deciding Riggs' date was uncomfortable because of her sex and because her victims were children. "With all candor, I find myself very much aware that this would be a first in Arkansas," he said. "I'm not particularly comfortable or necessarily happy with that. On the other hand, I recognize the crime and the process that we have to go through, and I'll weigh all of those things, but I'm going to try my best to be as objective as I can be in all of this."

Job Titles:

• Texas Governor

Texas governor Rick Perry granted Newton a 120-day reprieve just a few hours before she was to have been executed on Dec. 1, 2004, in order to give her attorneys additional time to investigate questions about the evidence used to convict her, but their efforts failed to clear her.

I. Riggs's letter to Carol Thomas saying she had killed the children. II. Riggs's letter to John Riggs saying she had taken the lives of the children. III. Riggs's statement overheard by nurse Julia Brown: "I killed my kids." IV. Riggs's telephone call to David McCombs where she described injecting her boy who then cried and smothering her daughter with a pillow. V. Testimony of defense witness, Dr. Bradley Diner, a psychiatrist, that Riggs described how she injected her son with potassium chloride and morphine and suffocated her daughter. VI. Testimony of defense witness, Dr. James Moneypenney, a psychologist, that Riggs told him that she killed her children by giving them Elavil and then smothering them with a pillow. He further testified about Riggs planning the murders forty-eight hours before hand and getting the drugs, pulling money out of her checking account for her mother, and writing suicide letters. VII. Testimony of Riggs's sister, Elizabeth Nottingham, that Riggs told her she was sorry for what she did. VIII. Testimony of Carol Thomas that Riggs told her she injected Justin who cried, "It hurts. It hurts." She couldn't do that to Shelby, she said, so she smothered her. IX. State witness Dr. John Anderson, a psychologist, who stated that Riggs told him she killed her children and told him how she did it. X. State witness Dr. Wendall Hall, a psychiatrist, who testified Riggs told him she killed her children immediately before trying to kill herself and that she had planned all this in advance. There was, in addition, the physical evidence found by police officers at Riggs's residence in Sherwood on November 5, 1997, which included the bottle of Elavil, morphine, potassium chloride, the used syringes, the two deceased children, and Riggs collapsed at the foot of the bed in an unconscious state. There was also the testimony of the medical examiner that there was evidence that the two children had been suffocated. We conclude that this cumulative evidence of Riggs's confessed guilt and physical evidence established her guilt for capital murder beyond a reasonable doubt even without her statement to the Sherwood police detectives.

Job Titles:

• Prosecutor

Job Titles:

• University of Houston Law Professors

Job Titles:

• Prosecuting Attorney

Job Titles:

• Employee of the City of Dallas

Jerry Hast, an employee of the City of Dallas, who was the "Administrator of the Dallas Police and Fire Pension Fund", testified concerning an application for benefits that had been filed by an attorney on behalf of appellant, which occurred after the letters testamentary had issued. Hast testified that "The Pension Board" voted to approve a settlement with appellant for pension benefits. This settlement was going to be finalized on June 10, 1985. Hast also testified that the settlement was cancelled after members of the Board learned that appellant had been arrested for murdering Beets. The appellant would have received $15,852.59 plus a monthly benefit of $790.42 for the rest of her life or until she remarried had the settlement been finalized. Whether the $15,852.59 referred to any insurance policies is not reflected in the record on appeal. As previously pointed out, our Probate Code prohibits distribution of a missing person's estate until three years from the date the letters testamentary issued have expired. E

Job Titles:

• Executive Director

Job Titles:

• Attorney

Attorney John Wesley Hall said the Supreme Court will likely hear her appeal by the summer. He contends that Circuit Judge Marion Humphrey erred when he failed to throw out the statement Riggs made to police from her hospital bed after the failed suicide try. Hall said Riggs was still "literally hallucinating" from the drug overdose at the time. Hall also contends the court allowed prosecutors to prejudice the jury by showing them four photographs of the dead children. Riggs is still bitter about the photographs, but she seems to bear no malice for the legal system that sentenced her to death.

Job Titles:

• Deputy Sheriff for Henderson County, Testified That at Approximately 8

Johnny Marr, a deputy sheriff for Henderson County, testified that at approximately 8:30 o'clock a.m. on August 7th, he and Hugh G. De Woody, the Fire Chief of the Payne Spring Fire Department, went to the appellant's residence to see if Beets had possibly returned home since he had been reported missing. Appellant told Marr that her husband "had went fishing the night before [on the lake and 'had been having trouble with his boat'], and hadn't returned Saturday morning." Marr told appellant that as speed boat races were taking place on the lake that day, and because of the numerous boats that would be in the lake that day, it was likely that Beets' body would be found by someone. When appellant testified, she denied that Marr and De Woody came to her residence that morning.

Job Titles:

• County Deputy since 2019

Job Titles:

• Registered Nurse in the Intensive Care Unit

Karen Stiles, a registered nurse in the intensive care unit at the hospital, testified that she first came into contact with Riggs on the evening of November 5, 1997. Ms. Stiles stated that at that time, Riggs was combative and incoherent. Ms. Stiles testified that the next morning, Riggs was calm, and she answered questions appropriately. Ms. Stiles referred to her assessment notes and stated that at seven-thirty or eight o'clock in the morning, Riggs was awake, alert, and oriented. She also testified that according to her notes, Riggs was speaking rapidly and was hard to understand, but that she could understand her. Ms. Stiles then referred to the assessment she did of Riggs using the Glascow Coma Scale. According to Ms. Stiles, the scale is used to determine a patient's level of consciousness. Ms. Stiles testified that at eight o'clock in the morning on November 6, 1997, she gave Riggs a fifteen, the highest score she could receive on the scale. On cross-examination, Ms. Stiles noted that Riggs signed the discharge orders from the physician but that her signature was illegible. Detective Jones and Detective Williams testified at the suppression hearing that Riggs made no attempt to stop the statement and that they in no way forced her to give the statement. Detective James Harper of the Sherwood Police Department testified that he sat in Riggs's hospital room the night of November 5, 1997, and the early morning of November 6, 1997. At one point he overheard her say: "I had to do it so I wouldn't leave them behind." To counter this evidence, Riggs called several witnesses at the suppression hearing. Another emergency room physician, Dr. Jim Rice, testified that Riggs was "combative at times" and "just incoherent and not really making any sense," when she was brought into the emergency room on November 5, 1997. Julia Brown, a nurse, stated that Riggs was confused as late as four o'clock in the morning of November 6, 1997, but she was not surprised that the nurse on the next shift four hours later found her to be alert, oriented, and responsive because it is not unusual for an overdose victim "to come around." Riggs's family members also testified at the suppression hearing. Her mother, Carol Thomas, told the court that Riggs was confused the day after the statement was given about whether Shelby was alive. She "hallucinated" about a conversation with her that did not happen. Riggs's sister, Roseanna Pickett, testified that the day after the statement, Riggs was incoherent and thought she was playing with Shelby. Her aunt, Mary Willis, testified that the next day, Riggs was "seeing things," including her dead children and a piece of gum. Another sister, Elizabeth Nottingham, testified that the following day, Riggs was groggy, not making sense, and " describing hallucinations." There is, too, the fact that at the end of her questioning Riggs made reference to the detective's mother descending on an escalator and old people getting on elevators which had no bearing on the subject matter of the interview and was arcane and bizarre. FN2. In his brief on appeal and during oral argument, counsel for Riggs argued that the testimony of a psychiatrist, Dr. Robert L. Rice, who saw Riggs at 9:30 a.m. on November 6, 1997, showed that at that time she had a "cloudiness of sensorium" and was "a little bit cloudy" and like "someone waking up from anesthesia." Dr. Robert Rice did not testify at the suppression hearing but only at trial. Thus, his testimony was not before the trial court for suppression purposes. Even had it been, we do not view it to be of sufficient impact to render the trial court's finding on voluntariness clearly erroneous. The trial court was confronted with all of this testimony and the statement itself and found the statement to be voluntary and not the product of delusion or hallucinations. It is clear to us that the testimony was in conflict, and we have no doubt that Riggs was somewhat impaired at the time she talked to police detectives because of the drug overdose. Yet, we have resolutely held that conflicts in the testimony and the extent of her impairment are for the trial court to resolve. See, e.g., Jones v. State, supra; Trull v. State, supra. We also defer to the trial court in its determination of credibility of witnesses in suppression matters. See Rankin v. State, supra. In the instant case, according to the testimony of Dr. Buford and Ms. Stiles, who were in contact with Riggs the morning of November 6, 1997, Riggs was alert and responsive before she gave her statement. The statement itself further portrays an ability to answer questions and describe events which physical evidence already in the hands of police confirmed. Rational response to questioning is a legitimate factor for the trial court to consider. See Midgett v. State, 316 Ark. 553, 873 S.W.2d 165 (1994); McDougald v. State, 295 Ark. 276, 748 S.W.2d 340 (1988). And unlike the facts in Mincey v. Arizona, supra, Riggs never requested that the interview stop so that she could retain counsel. Under these circumstances, we hold that the trial court did not clearly err in finding that her statement was voluntarily given. See Jones v. State, supra.

Job Titles:

• Said Lambda Executive Director

Said Lambda Executive Director Kevin M. Cathcart, "Lambda deals daily with the legal system's fallibility and the effects of bias on court decisions. With this experience, we oppose the death penalty as a harsh and irreversible use of government power." Lambda is the nation's oldest and largest gay legal organization. Founded in 1973, Lambda is headquartered in New York and has regional offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta.

Job Titles:

• Executive Director of Gay Men of African Descent

Job Titles:

• Owner of the Redwood Beach Marina

Betty Lou Beets, the appellant, was convicted by a jury of committing the offense of capital murder of Jimmy Don Beets, who was then her lawful husband. It was alleged in the indictment that the appellant "did then and there, knowingly and intentionally cause[d] the death of an individual, namely, Jimmy Don Beets, by shooting him with a firearm, and the said murder was committed for remuneration and the promise of remuneration, namely: money from the proceeds of retirement benefits from the employment of Jimmy Don Beets with the City of Dallas, insurance policies on the said Jimmy Don Beets in which the [appellant] is the named beneficiary, and the estate of Jimmy Don Beets." The record reflects that Beets died intestate. At the time of his death, Beets and appellant had been married less than one year, although they had previously lived together for an unknown period of time.After the jury found appellant guilty of the offense of capital murder, "as alleged in the indictment", The indictment obviously alleges the offense of murder and the aggravating element of remuneration, which causes the offense of murder to be elevated to capital murder. it thereafter answered in the affirmative the special issues that were submitted to it pursuant to Art. 37.071, V.A.C.C.P The special issues were as follows: "Was the conduct of the Defendant, Betty Lou Beets, that caused the death of the deceased, Jimmy Don Beets, committed deliberately and with the reasonable expectation that the death of the deceased or another would result?"; "Is there a probability that the Defendant, Betty Lou Beets, would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society?"Neither the appellant nor the State presented any testimony or evidence at the punishment stage of the trial; the State relying upon the evidence that had been presented at the guilt stage of the trial as the basis for the jury's answers to the special issues that were submitted at the punishment stage of the trial. Thereafter, the trial judge assessed the appellant's punishment at death. We reverse. Lil Smith, owner of the Redwood Beach Marina, which is located between the communities of Kemp and Seven Points or between the communities of Seven Points and Gun Barrel City on Cedar Creek Lake or Reservoir, testified that around 10:00 o'clock p.m. on August 6, 1983, several of her customers at the marina noticed an empty boat drifting on the lake near the marina. Two of her customers went and got the empty boat and brought it to shore. Found inside the boat was a fishing license with the name "Jimmy Don Beets" thereon. Also found in the boat were a medicine bottle containing nitroglycerine tablets and a life jacket. Several tablets from the bottle were found in the bottom of the boat.The Coast Guard and Parks and Wildlife were notified and several of their personnel came to the marina. Smith then looked in the telephone book to see if anyone by the name of Jimmy Don Beets was listed, found that name, telephoned the listed number several times, and finally spoke to appellant and informed her about the empty boat and the finding of Beets' fishing license. The appellant later told Smith that the reason she did not immediately answer the telephone was because she was outside in the yard and did not hear it ring. The appellant went to the marina and identified the boat and the fishing license as belonging to Beets, who was then her lawful husband. The boat was established to be Beets' separate property, having been acquired before he and appellant married. On July 24, 1984, almost a year after Beets was reported missing, but before the skeletal remains of his body were found, appellant sold the boat to Martha and Michael J. Miller. During the trial, Martha testified to the facts of the sale of the boat by appellant to her and her husband. The record also reflects that Beets owned a house, which was also apparently his separate property. Appellant testified that she and Beets had tried to sell the house before Beets disappeared. The house mysteriously burned. Apparently, after letters testamentary issued, appellant, through counsel, unsuccessfully attempted to recover on a fire insurance policy that insured the house for fire loss.Because of high winds, it was decided by the authorities that a search for Beets' body would not commence until the next morning, August 7th.

Lynda Cheryle Lyon - born and raised in Orlando, Florida, but has traveled throughout America. She is a professional writer of columns, op-ed pieces and short stories for several publications. She is a sailor, scuba diver, cross-country motorcyclist, sport shooter, fisherman and billiards champion. She has been active in community affairs as President of Friends of the Library, as investigator for the Humane Society, President of the Young Womens organization in her church, and State Vice-Chair of the Libertarian Party of Florida, where she and George met. George became Lynda's partner in her publishing business and wrote a column about gun ownership rights in her magazine "Liberatus." They married in 1992 and are raising Lynda's 11 year-old son, Gordon.

Lynda Lyon Block is scheduled to be electrocuted by the state of Alabama on May 10 for the death of police officer Roger Motley. Block has completely waived her right to legal counsel and her right to appeal her death sentence, on account of her political beliefs. Block has refused to accept the validity of Alabama's judicial system, claiming that Alabama never became a state again after the Civil War. She has been completely non-cooperative with her court-appointed attorney, who has nevertheless attempted to work against her death sentence. Block has instead chosen to appeal directly to Congress and the judiciary. Upon hearing of her execution date Block stated: Block's execution date is essentially another case of a volunteer execution. She was given a stay due to the fact that her previous execution date, April 19, is considered a sacred date to those who share her political beliefs. Please write to Judge Roy Moore and the state of Alabama to protest this second attempt to execute Lynda Block. Block "has absolutely no remorse," Motley said. "I don't think she has an ounce of humanity in her. I'm a compassionate person. If I had seen some sympathy for the victim in all of this, I wouldn't feel the need to see this finished." Motley will travel to the execution site with her two sons. Roger Motley's mother, Anne Motley, and sister, Betty Anne Foschee, also will be there. The three women are on the list to witness Block's death. Lynda Lyon Block is scheduled to be strapped into a brightly painted yellow chair, known in Alabama as "Yellow Mama," just after midnight tonight. If the execution goes as planned by Alabama's Department of Corrections, and Block, 54, is pronounced dead minutes later, the convicted killer of an Opelika, Ala., police officer could achieve a new infamy: the last inmate in the United States to die in the electric chair.

Marilyn Plantz was convicted March 24, 1989, and sentenced to death March 31, 1989. Bryson also received a death sentence and was executed June 15, 2000. McKimble received a life sentence for his part in the murder. "Marilyn Plantz orchestrated and participated in the brutal murder of her husband," Edmondson said. "My thoughts are with the Plantz family, and those who have been deprived of the company of James Plantz for more than a decade following his untimely and unnecessary death." Marilyn Plantz was sentenced to death for the 1988 murder of her husband, James Plantz, 33. In June of 2000, William Clifford Bryson, 29, was executed by injection for his part in the murder. Thirteen relatives and friends of Jim Plantz, including his two sisters, father and brother, were at the prison for the execution. After a tour of the penitentiary, Karen Lowery, Jim's sister, said Bryson's death does not mean a victory for her family. "It's a no-win situation. Nobody is going to win in the end," Lowery said. Sharon Cotton, Jim's other sister, said before the execution that his death would only provide partial closure for the family. "Marilyn Plantz and Clifford Bryson (have) lived almost 12 years since Jim was murdered; that is 12 years longer than my brother lived." She said executing Bryson would provide her family the justice they have sought since the killing. "He didn't think twice about taking my brother's life," she said of Bryson. "He didn't think about the children or my brother's family and how that would affect us for the rest of our lives." State Attorney General Drew Edmondson said Jim Plantz "suffered a horrible, cruel, painful death. Prosecutors said Bryson and Marilyn Plantz planned to collect an insurance policy of about $319,000 for James' accidental death. Marilyn Plantz was the beneficiary. On Aug. 26, 1988, after Jim Plantz returned home from working the night shift as a pressroom supervisor at The Oklahoman, Bryson, then 18, and friend Clinton McKimble ambushed him and beat him with 2 baseball bats provided from their son's room by his wife, who also was present. McKimble, who received a life sentence for testifying against Bryson, said they left him on the floor bloody and hurt, then Marilyn Plantz looked at her husband's head injuries from the beating and remarked that it didn't look like an accident. "She told us to burn him," McKimble testified. Plantz was still alive when he was loaded into a pickup truck and driven to a remote area, where he and the vehicle were doused with gasoline and set ablaze. The medical evidence showed that he was alive at the time because of smoke that was inhaled into his lungs. Bryson told police he and Marilyn Plantz planned to move out of state and get married. Bryson said Marilyn Plantz told him her husband had threatened to kill himself and her if she divorced him. Plantz denied being involved in the killing. Marilyn Plantz was a homemaker and Sunday school teacher, and they raised their 2 children in a quiet, Midwest City neighborhood. Their two children were asleep in a bedroom when the attack occurred. Lowery said she was stunned when she received the call that her brother had been the victim of a homicide, and then learned his wife and her lover were accused. "It's like when you hear people talk about the perfect marriage -- they never argued, never fought, no cross words," Lowery said. Jim was the third of four children and grew up in the Shawnee and Pink areas of Pottawatomie County. He was remembered as fun-loving, a punctual and dependable employee and a devoted father to Trina, 9, and Christopher, 6. "His kids were his No. 1 priority. He was rarely seen without the two kids," Cotton said. Marilyn Kay Plantz, 40, was executed on May 1, 2001, via lethal injection at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Plantz was sentenced to death for the 1988 murder of her husband, James Earl Plantz, 33. William Bryson, who was executed on June 15, 2000, was also sentenced to death for this murder. Clinton Eugene McKimble was also charged with first-degree murder in this case. He pled guilty and was given a sentence of life imprisonment in exchange for his testimony against Plantz and Bryson. Plantz was the second woman executed since statehood (1907) as well as the second woman executed this year. (Wanda Jean Allen was executed on January 11, 2001.) Her execution also marked Oklahoma's climb to number two in executions per capita. Only Delaware has a higher per-capita execution rate. Early morning on Friday, August 26, 1988, James Earl Plantz, 33, was found dead in his pickup. Prosecutors alleged that Plantz was beaten with baseball bats at his Midwest City home and then burned in his pickup at a secluded location. The following Monday, police arrested the victim's wife, Marilyn Kay Plantz, 27, on a murder charge. Investigators believed she had paid someone to kill her husband. William Clifford Bryson, 18, and Clinton Eugene McKimble, 18, were arrested the next day. On Wednesday, Marilyn Plantz, William Bryson and Clinton McKimble were all charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors announced that they would seek the death penalty. Police stated that collection on two life insurance policies on James Plantz, which were worth $319,000, was the probable reason behind his murder. Prosecutors stated that McKimble and Bryson were hired by Marilyn Plantz to kill her husband. On October 20, prosecutors agreed to let McKimble plead guilty to murder and be sentenced to life imprisonment. As part of the agreement, he would testify against Plantz and Bryson. At a preliminary hearing for Bryson and Plantz, Roderick Eugene Farris testified that Plantz said the murder would "have to look life an accident." He also stated that a few days earlier Bryson had said his girlfriend, Marilyn Plantz, had called and was crying because her husband had beaten her. In videotaped testimony, Bryson told police how he and an accomplice beat James Plantz. Bryson said, "I didn't have no specific reason why I killed him. All I was thinking while I was beating him was all the times she came up to me with a black eye and crying. I didn't like that." In the videotape, Bryson said that he loves Marilyn Plantz. He also stated that Marilyn said her husband had threatened to kill himself and her if she divorced him. Plantz denied any roll in the killing of her husband. She told police they had a perfect marriage. Defense attorneys argued that Bryson and Plantz should have separate trials, because the defendants had inconsistent, mutually antagonistic, defenses. Oklahoma County District Judge Charles Owens ruled that they would be tried together. Joyce Gilchrist, a chemist for the Oklahoma City Police Department, testified in the trial of Plantz and Bryson. Recently the FBI studied eight cases on which Gilchrist had worked, finding serious errors in 75% of them. At the trial in March 1989, jurors took less than three hours to find Plantz and Bryson guilty of the murder of James Plantz, of conspiracy to murder, of recruiting others to help, and of arson. Neither Plantz nor Bryson testified during the trial. The next day jurors deliberated for five hours before voting in favor of death sentences for both Marilyn Plantz and William Bryson. They were each also sentenced to 100 years for recruiting others to help in the murder, 10 years for conspiracy to murder, and a 15-year sentence for burning the pickup truck. Trina Plantz Wells, 21, who is the daughter of Marilyn and Jim Plantz, pled for the board to spare her mother's life. Wells was reported as having cried throughout the entire hearing. She recently reconciled with her mother after having had no contact with her for 13 years. In a videotaped statement, Wells said "My father's gone and we need a mom, whether or not she is in prison. We need to have a relationship with her. I really don't want my mom to die -- that is my hope. I've had 13 years to think about it. "I love my father. He was my hero. But it is not fair to me to have to go to another funeral and devastating death like this." Karen Lowery, the sister of Jim Plantz, asked the board to let the execution take place. She stated that Marilyn did not show remorse during the preliminary hearing or the trial. She also stated that she believed the death penalty can deter criminals. In a barely audible voice, Plantz apologized to the families, mentioning each sibling, parent and child by name. "It's hard to think about living the rest of my life in prison. But now I have a reason to live. I want to live for my daughter and, hopefully, for my son."

Job Titles:

• Director, Lesbian and Gay Rights Project

Job Titles:

• American Bar Association President

Job Titles:

• Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections
• Department of Corrections Commissioner

Department of Corrections Commissioner Michael Haley said Block walked willingly to the execution chamber and displayed no emotion to the very end. "She had a very blank, emotionless stare," Haley said. "The execution was routine. There was never any unexpected incidents." Block declined the offer to make a final statement. Michael Haley, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections, has barred interviews with Block, who was moved this week to Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, home of the state's electric chair. Haley said he does not want to provide her with a platform for her political views. But much of her story can be pieced together from court records, interviews with people who knew her, letters she has sent to friends and her written responses to Orlando Sentinel questions. "The fact that I love my country enough to be outspoken about the abuses I've seen and encountered by government agents or agencies makes me no more 'anti-government' than the NAACP or NOW," she writes. She has also written directly to Congress, in a crisp, even hand on yellow legal paper, claiming the existence of a widespread conspiracy against her, one that stretches from the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office to the Alabama Supreme Court.

Job Titles:

• Owner

Job Titles:

• Director of the Black Heritage Society

Job Titles:

• Employee of the City of Dallas

Peggy Sherrills Webb, an employee of the City of Dallas who was a "Benefits Supervisor with Personnel", testified that Beets had a life insurance policy with the City in the amount of $86,000, with the appellant the named beneficiary of the policy. George Chaney, a documents examiner who had been employed for 23 years by the Secret Service and was presently employed by James Leroy Lewis and Associates, documents examiners located in Dallas, testified that the signature on the J.C. Penney's application, "J.D. Beets", was signed by appellant, but that the signature "J.D. Beets," that authorized the policy to be cancelled, was Beets' actual signature. Chaney also testified that the signature on the certificate of transfer or bill of sale for the boat, "J.D. Beets", which occurred when the boat was sold to the Mitchells, was signed by appellant. This, however, occurred on July 24, 1984, almost one year after Beets had disappeared. When appellant testified, she did not dispute the fact that she had sold the boat to the Mitchells nor did she dispute that she signed Beets' name to the bill of sale.

Ramona Bell, a long time acquaintance of the deceased, Adrian Newton, had been dating him for some time prior to April 7, 1987. Bell knew that appellant and Adrian were on bad terms. Bell testified that on April 7, 1987, she called Adrian from work at approximately 6:45 p.m., and appellant answered the telephone. Bell then spoke to Adrian for about fifteen minutes. During the telephone conversation Adrian told Bell that he was tired and was going to go to sleep, but not until appellant left, because he did not trust appellant.

Job Titles:

• Defense Attorney

Job Titles:

• Investigator for the Henderson County Sheriff 's Department

Rick Rose, an investigator for the Henderson County Sheriff's Department, testified that he became directly involved in this case almost two years after Beets' had disappeared. His direct involvement in the case occurred after "[he] received information from a [credible] confidential informant who gave [him] facts that there may be possible ... questions [concerning the cause of the death] of Jimmy Don Beets." This occurred sometime in the spring of 1985. At that time, neither Beets' body nor the physical remains of his body had been found. As a result of Rose's investigation, he secured an arrest warrant for the appellant that charged her with the murder of Beets. Rose had her arrested on June 8, 1985 by members of the Mansfield Police Department, who turned her over to Rose, who booked her into the Henderson County Jail. The validity of the arrest warrant, which is not in the record of appeal, was not challenged in the trial court nor is it challenged on appeal in this Court. Rose testified that after appellant was incarcerated he went and secured "an evidentiary search warrant" to search the appellant's residence and its premises. The validity of the search warrant, which is also not in the record, was not challenged in the trial court nor is it challenged on appeal in this Court. Pursuant to the execution of the search warrant, physical remains of the bodies of Beets and Doyle Wayne Barker, another former husband of appellant's, were found at different locations on the premises where the appellant and Beets were living at the time Beets disappeared. The jury was not then made aware of the extraneous offense testimony regarding Barker's disappearance and death. This came into evidence after the trial judge conducted a hearing on appellant's motion to exclude such testimony, which he overruled. Beets' remains were found buried in the "wishing well," which was located in the front yard of the residence. Barker's remains were found buried under a storage shed located in the backyard of the residence. Two bullets were recovered from Beets' remains. The remains of the two bodies were transported to the Dallas Forensic Science Laboratory where they were subsequently identified as being the remains of the bodies of Beets and Barker. A Collector's item pistol that had been previously recovered from the appellant's residence as a result of an incident that did not involve the appellant and was not directly related to the cause at Bar was also turned over to the Dallas laboratory.

Job Titles:

• Presiding Officer of the Texas Board of Pardons

Rissie Owens, presiding officer of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, said in a statement that each board member gave full consideration to Newton's clemency request. The board considered all the information submitted from any interested parties including prosecutors, family members and the public. He said Newton's claims of innocence were not substantiated.

Job Titles:

• Executive Director, ACLU of Arkansas

Job Titles:

• Assistant District Attorney

Assistant District Attorney Roe Wilson denies that more than one weapon was recovered. Tests on three occasions have identified the weapon Newton hid as the murder weapon, Wilson said.

Job Titles:

• OFFICER

Roger Motley had been just about every kind of cop you could be in Opelika. He started as a dispatcher at age 19 and worked his way through the divisions -- traffic, patrol, detective. Then a captain, noticing Motley getting onto the other detectives for not filling out their paperwork correctly, transferred him to administration. Motley's chief responsibility was making sure that the county jail ran smoothly. He drove the only patrol car in town that did not have a light rack on top. He was the only officer in the city who did not own a bulletproof vest. Because of a shortage of the vests, he had given his up a week earlier to a rookie patrolman. He had never fired his service revolver in the line of duty. Roger Motley had just finished lunch with his wife, Juanita. He was shopping for supplies for the jail when a woman came up to him and told him there was a car in the parking lot with a little boy inside. The woman was worried about him. The car seemed to be filled with possessions and bedding. The boy seemed like he needed help. She was afraid that the family was living in their car. Would he check on them? Motley cruised up and down the rows of parked cars and finally pulled up behind the Mustang. Sibley was in the car with the boy, waiting for Block to finish a call to a friend from a pay phone in front of the store. Motley asked Sibley for his drivers license. Sibley said he didn't need one. He was trying to explain why when Motley put his hand on his service revolver. Sibley reached into the car and pulled out a gun. Motley uttered a four-letter expletive and spun away to take cover behind his cruiser. Sibley crouched by the bumper of the Mustang. People in the parking lot screamed, hid beneath their cars and ran back into the store as the men began firing at each other. Preoccupied by the threat in front of him, Motley did not see Lynda Block until the very last moment. She had dropped the phone, pulling the 9mm Glock pistol from her bag as she ran toward the scene, firing. Motley turned. She remembered later how surprised he looked. She kept on firing. She could tell that a bullet struck him in the chest. Staggering, he reached into the cruiser. She kept on firing, thinking he was trying to get a shotgun. But he was grabbing for the radio. "Double zero," he managed to say -- the code for help. He wasn't attacking her. He was trying to get away. He had just enough consciousness left to put the cruiser into gear. It glided into a parked car and came to a rest as he blacked out. He died in a nearby hospital that afternoon. In letters to friends and supporters, Block later would describe Motley as a "bad cop" and a wife beater with multiple complaints against him. As part of the conspiracy against her, she said, she was prohibited from bringing up his record in court. His personnel file makes no mention of any misbehavior. His wife says he was a kind and patient man. The most serious trouble Motley ever seems to have gotten into was having a fender-bender in his police cruiser. After her husband's death, Juanita Motley received a letter of sympathy from a man who had been a prisoner in the Opelika jail while he was in charge, saying Roger had always treated him with kindness. Roger Motley was the supply officer for the Opelika Police Department and hadn't been on patrol for years. He was irritated that he had to stop and check on this situation. He drove his car up and down the aisles, and when he found our car, he stopped behind it.

Shirley Stegner, one of appellant's daughters and a sister of Robbie, also testified for the prosecution. Shirley testified that her mother telephoned her on the night of August 6th and requested that Shirley come to her residence, which Shirley did. During the telephone conversation, Shirley asked her mother "if she had done what we had talked about before," which conversation related to appellant previously telling Shirley that she was going to kill Beets, put Beets' body in the boat, have Robbie take the boat out into the lake, where he would drop Beets' body into the lake, and then set the boat adrift, so that it would look like Beets had accidentally drowned. Appellant responded: "Yes." Shirley went to her mother's residence but after she got there appellant informed her that "everything was taken care of and that I could go back home," which she did. Shirley testified that several weeks later she returned to her mother's residence when she was informed by appellant that "her and my brother Robbie had buried Jimmy Don Beets in the wishing well." Shirley never testified that appellant had admitted to her that she had killed Beets in order to recover on any insurance policies or to receive any pension benefits that Beets might have had. At this time during the trial, the trial judge conducted a hearing on the appellant's motion to exclude any extraneous offense testimony going to the death of Barker, after which the trial judge overruled the motion, thus permitting the State to then present testimony going to the disappearance and death of Barker. See, however, post. In the presence of the jury, Shirley testified that in October, 1981, almost two years before Beets disappeared, when her mother and Barker were married and living together, while she and her mother were "sitting around a campfire", her mother told her that "she was going to kill Doyle Wayne Barker" because "she couldn't put up with anymore of him beating her and that she didn't want him around anymore." Her mother also told her that "the trailer [house] was in his name and she was just a co-signer on it and that if they were to get a divorce, that he would end up with the trailer [house]." Approximately 3 or 4 days later, at Shirley's residence, Shirley and her mother had another conversation, during which her mother told her that "it was all over with and she had done what she intended to do ... She told [Shirley] that she waited until [Barker] went to sleep and then she got the gun and covered it with a pillow and pulled the trigger and when she pulled the trigger, the pillow [interfered] with the firing pin, so she hesitated for a minute, afraid that Wayne was going to wake up, and she cocked the gun again and fired and shot him in the head." Thereafter, Shirley assisted her mother in disposing of Barker's body: "We drug him from the trailer outside to the back and put him in the hole that had already been dug [in order to build a barbeque pit]." Shirley further testified that "the next day [she and her mother] went and bought some cinder blocks and [built] a patio" over the hole in which Barker's body had been placed. Subsequently, a large storage shed replaced the patio. During cross-examination, Shirley testified that although she had also been charged with the murder of Barker and her $1,000,000 bail bond had been reduced to $5,000 she had not been promised anything by the prosecution in exchange for her testimony against her mother. We pause to point out that in the conversations that Shirley had with her mother regarding Barker's death, other than the reference to the trailer house, appellant did not admit to Shirley that she was going to kill Barker for financial gain. There is also no evidence whatsoever in the record that might reflect or indicate that appellant financially benefited from Barker's death. There is also no evidence in the record that might reflect or indicate that the trailer house to which appellant referred and the trailer house in which appellant and Beets resided when Beets was reported missing are one and the same trailer house.

Job Titles:

• CHIEF DEPUTY

Job Titles:

• Circuit Judge

Job Titles:

• Attorney

W.A. Drew Edmondson, Attorney General - Execution Date Set for Marilyn Plantz (03/08/2001) The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals today set May 1 as the execution date for Oklahoma death row inmate Marilyn Plantz, who engineered the 1988 murder of her husband to collect on an insurance policy, according to Attorney General Drew Edmondson. Plantz, 40, lost her final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 26, and Edmondson immediately requested the Court of Criminal Appeals to schedule her execution. Plantz is one of two women on Oklahoma's death row. The other, Lois Nadean Smith, has only a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court remaining. A third female death row inmate, Wanda Jean Allen, was executed in January. Plantz was romantically involved with William Clifford Bryson, and had spoken to him and others about murdering her husband so she could collect the death benefit from an insurance policy valued at about $300,000. James Plantz, 33, who worked the night shift at the printing plant at the Daily Oklahoman, was ambushed in his home by Bryson and Clinton McKimble after returning to his Oklahoma City home from work on Aug. 26, 1988. Marilyn Plantz was present as the men severely beat James Plantz with baseball bats provided by his wife. James Plantz was then loaded into his own pickup truck and driven to the 6500 block of N.E. 50th Street, where the truck was set on fire.

Wanda Jean Allen's victim and one-time lover, Gloria Jean Leathers, died four days after being shot at close range in 1988 by Allen in front of the Village Police Station in Oklahoma City. Allen said she and Leathers were both out of control. Leathers had called her mother to pick her up from the house where she and Allen lived. After packing her belongings, Leathers and her mother went to the police station to file a compliant against Allen. Allen followed Leathers and shot her. Leathers' mother, Ruby Wilson of Edmond, witnessed the killing. On Oct. 13, Ruby Wilson met with her daughter's killer. "I wanted to tell her how sorry I was for taking her daughter's life. And I know there is no greater love than a mother's love for a child because I have a mother as well. And I asked for her forgiveness. She forgave me. We prayed together. And I let her know I loved her for coming that day." Leathers and Allen met in prison. Allen was serving a 4-year sentence for manslaughter. On June 29, 1981, at a motel in Oklahoma City, Allen shot to death Detra Pettus following an argument with Pettus' boyfriend. "We was friends," Allen said of Pettus. "We grew up together. We lived in the same neighborhood. We had mutual friends." While some prosecutors say that Allen and Leathers had a relationship in prison, Allen said that was not the case. Allen was released from prison before Leathers. When Leathers got out, she called Allen. "She didn't have a place to stay," Allen said. "She and her family were having problems. I allowed her to come and live with me because I know how hard it is when you get out. "By me being locked up, I understood that situation. You have to help people when they get out. Someone had helped me when I got out, so in turn I wanted to help someone as well." The pair lived together on and off for three years. She described Leathers as funny and witty. "It was the wrong type of lifestyle," she said of the lesbian relationship. "It didn't make either of us less human than if we were in a heterosexual relationship, a bisexual relationship. We are still human. We have emotions. We laugh. We cry. It was part of our life." At her trial, Oklahoma County prosecutors painted Allen as a person who hunted down her victims. Prosecutors introduced a card Allen had given Leathers. The card had a gorilla on it. The printed message said, "Patience my ass. I am going to kill something." Inside, Allen had written, "Try and leave me and you will understand this card more. Dig. For real, no joke." Leathers was portrayed as meek and timid. Allen said her attorney was not given a fair shot at defending her and was limited in what he could present. In 1979, Leathers was arrested in Tulsa for the stabbing death of Sheila Marie Barker, whom she killed outside a Tulsa disco. A judge later determined the slaying was self-defense. Ruby Wilson of Edmond can recall her daughter's murder as if it were just yesterday. The 57-year-old was an eyewitness in 1988 when Wanda Jean Allen shot Gloria Jean Leathers during a confrontation in front of the Village Police Station, where Wilson and her daughter had gone to file a report against Allen. Wilson said they had just pulled up to the station after leaving the house where Allen and Leathers had lived on and off for three years. Wilson said Leathers was moving out. Leathers was exiting the car when Allen, who had followed them, walked up with her hands underneath a sweatshirt. After exchanging words with Allen, Leathers was leaning into the car to pick up her purse when Allen "stuck it to my baby's ribs . . . she stuck it to her stomach and shot her. It sounded like a cap gun." Leathers slumped into the car. Four days later, she died following surgery, Wilson said. "I don't have any grudges against her," Wilson said. "I don't hate her, but I hate what she did. I hope she found peace with Christ about it. It does hurt. I will never forget it. I will always see it. That is in the past. I have to go on toward the future." Wilson on Oct. 13 met with Allen, who asked for forgiveness. "Being bitter won't solve anything," Wilson said. "It won't help me. It can't bring my baby back." Leathers left behind three children, whom Wilson has raised. "Her children have suffered," Wilson said. "I am too forgiving. They are not." Robert Ferguson Jr., Leathers' brother, is also not forgiving Allen. Ferguson said it is the second time that Allen has shot and killed someone. Allen served part of a four-year sentence for manslaughter stemming from the June 29, 1981, killing of Detra Pettus. "Second of all, she did it in front of my mother in front of a police station," said Ferguson, who lives in Jefferson City, Mo., and is a supervisor for the U.S. Postal Service. "So, I don't feel sorry for her, you know." Ferguson plans to witness Allen's execution, which is set for shortly after 9 p.m. Jan. 11 at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. "If I could say anything to her, I don't know," Ferguson said. "I would say I am sorry this had to happen, but you brought it on yourself." Mary Ann Leathers, 39, who lives in Tulsa and is a day-care provider, also plans to witness the execution. She describes her sister as sweet, friendly and a person who would "give you anything. Sometimes you didn't have to ask for it." Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson said "I have my own personal opinion about the death penalty. I don't think it should ever be treated lightly. I am no more troubled by her case than I am any other case that we handle." Twenty-four relatives of murder victim Gloria Leathers and manslaughter victim Detra Pettus traveled to McAlester for the execution. Many of those relatives watched the execution from behind a tinted window. Detra Pettus' mother, Delma Pettus, and sisters, Rhonda Pettus and Sherri Wilson said Allen spent four years in prison after their loved one "was pistol whipped and shot at point-blank range. The short prison stays are a part of the reason crimes are repeated," the Pettus' statement read. "It has taken 20 years and a second murder in order to get the death penalty." Allen's last chance for life was erased about 7:30 p.m. Thursday when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene in her case. A few hours earlier, the same appeal was rejected by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. "Ms. Allen has failed to substantiate her allegation of a due process violation," the Denver judges concluded 3-0, referring to her claim that an assistant attorney general used false evidence against her at her unsuccessful Dec. 15 clemency hearing. Forty-five minutes after the 10th Circuit's decision, Keating denied a stay of execution. Keating said the courts had pondered the case for 12 years, and that Allen had lodged 11 different appeals since her conviction. "This is not easy because I am dealing with a fellow human being ... with a fellow Oklahoman," the governor said. "I have debated and discussed this, and now have resolved to deny the extension of 30 days. I care very deeply for the victims of crime. I have no use for killers, but I have a deep and abiding faith in the rule of law. I have to think about the woman she murdered in cold blood. I grieve for the families; I grieve for the dead. If a person takes another's life premeditated, they take their own." The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) today announced the formation of a united front of concerned organizations working to halt the execution of Wanda Jean Allen, one of nine prisonersslated for death in the state of Oklahoma in the first four weeks of 2001. Unless Oklahoma authorities intervene, Ms. Allen will become the first woman executed in the state in nearly a century and the first African American woman to be put to death in the United States during the modern era. Wanda Jean Allen is scheduled to be executed in Oklahoma on 11 January 2001. She was sentenced to death in 1989 for killing her lover, Gloria Leathers, in Oklahoma City in 1988. Her clemency hearing before the state Pardon and Parole Board is due to take place on 15 December. The two women, who had met in prison, had a turbulent relationship; each had called the police to their home on more than one occasion after a domestic dispute. Gloria Leathers? death followed a protracted argument between the couple which began at a local shop, continued at their home, and culminated outside a police station. Allen maintained she had acted in self-defence, claiming that Leathers had struck her in the face with a hand rake during the confrontation at the house, and that outside the police station Leathers had again come at her with the rake. Allen shot Leathers, who died four days later on 5 December 1988. The wound to Allen?s face from the rake was still visible on 6 December, when she was photographed in jail. Allen's family approached a lawyer known to them. Believing that this was not a capital case, he agreed to take it for a fee of $5,000. The family made an initial payment of $800. The state then charged Wanda Jean Allen with first-degree murder and announced that it would seek the death penalty. The lawyer asked the judge to allow him to withdraw from the case on the grounds that he did not have the resources to represent a capital defendant. He had learned that the family was unable to pay for an investigator or any other expert to aid in the defence, and that they could not pay him the remaining $4,200 either. He offered to act as co-counsel, for free, if a public defender was appointed as lead counsel. The prosecution opposed the lawyer?s motion, and the court refused to allow him to withdraw. He was therefore forced to defend Wanda Jean Allen on a total payment of $800, with no co-counsel, no investigator and no resources to hire expert witnesses. Furthermore, this was his first capital case. Evidence that Leathers had a history of violent conduct, and that she had stabbed a woman to death in Tulsa in 1979, was central to the self-defence argument at Allen's trial. Allen testified that she feared Leathers because she had boasted to her about the killing. The defence sought to corroborate this claim with testimony from Leathers' mother, whom Leathers had told about the stabbing. However, the prosecution objected, and the court prohibited the introduction of any such testimony. Although the state knew about the Tulsa stabbing, the prosecutor told the jury. Regardless of how many times [the defence] tells you that Gloria Leathers... killed someone... that?s just from the defendant's mouth alone that you heard that testimony. Please remember that, from the defendant's mouth alone that you heard that testimony.? The prosecutor had already depicted Allen as a remorseless liar. For example, noting that Allen had cried throughout the trial, the prosecutor suggested to the jury that her crying was insincere and a further sign that she was lying. In a 1991 affidavit, the defence lawyer stated that after the trial he had learned that when Allen was 15 years old, her IQ had been measured at 69, and that the doctor who examined her had recommended a neurological assessment because she manifested symptoms of brain damage. The lawyer stated I did not search for any medical or psychological records or seek expert assistance? for use at the trial. A psychologist conducted a comprehensive evaluation of Wanda Jean Allen in 1995 and found clear and convincing evidence of cognitive and sensori-motor deficits and brain dysfunction possibly linked to an adolescent head injury. At the age of 12, Allen had been hit by a truck and knocked unconscious, and at 14 or 15 she had been stabbed in the left temple. He found that Allen?s intellectual abilities are markedly impaired?, and that her IQ was 80. He found particularly significant left hemisphere dysfunction?, impairing her comprehension, her ability to logically express herself, her ability to analyse cause and effect relationships... He also concluded that Allen was ?more chronically vulnerable than others to becoming disorganized by everyday stresses - and thus more vulnerable to a loss of control under stress.